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“Prayer is never an acceptable substitute for obedience.
The sovereign Lord accepts no offering from His creatures
that is not accompanied by obedience.
To pray for revival while ignoring or actually flouting the plain
precept laid down in the Scriptures is to waste a lot of words and
get nothing for our trouble.”

Anyway back to the topic. Spring has sprung around here and with it came some weddings and wedding showers plus a multitude of other things. And kittens … (Anyone want kittens?) Thus we have had lots of opportunity to discuss the matter and watch how others have proceeded. Some have been the typical public school and dating process while others have been the homeschooling and courting method. Guess what? They are equally just as married when everything is said and done. It is the process that is the interesting part and this has been part of our discussions.

Courting Is Like Potty Training

1) Everyone has an opinion on how it should be done and many are eager to share their opinion.

2) Sometimes everyone is ready except those who should be.

3) May involve tears.

4) May take lots of time or be rather quick.

5) Many things sound great in theory but do not actually work in practice.

6) There is no magic age.

7) Patience is a virtue.

8) Watch for cues of interest.

9) Requires physical (fiscal) and emotional readiness.

10) Although the parent maybe ready, the child may not be ready or maybe the child is ready and not the parent. Sometimes everyone else but the parent and child are ready.

11) May be messy.

12) Pressure from others “Isn’t it about time … ?”

13) You can have read all the books but that doesn’t necessarily help in your particular case.

14) Sometimes observing others makes things easier.

15) In the end you often look back and think “Why was that a big deal, it wasn’t that bad?”

But like I said everything is in theory until you’ve put it into practice. 😉

It is critical to understand that regeneration is something that the Holy Spirit does that really and truly changes a person; it changes the very disposition of his soul. If a person is truly regenerate and manifests faith, it is impossible for that person not to bring forth some measure of obedience.

Do not be deceived! This is not true repentance! Both Ahab and Judas had great trouble of mind. It is one thing to be a terrified sinner—and another to be a repenting sinner. Sense of guilt is enough to breed terror in the conscience. Only infusion of divine grace, breeds true repentance. If pain and trouble were sufficient to repentance, then the damned in hell should be most penitent, for they are most in anguish. “Men gnawed their tongues in agony and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done!” Revelation 16:10-11. Repentance depends upon a change of heart. There may be terror—yet with no change of heart. “I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds.” Acts 26:20

We are today accepted in the Beloved, absolved from sin, acquitted at the bar of God. …

We are now-even now pardoned; even now are our sins put away; even now we stand in the sight of God accepted, as though we had never been guilty. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” There is not a sin in the Book of God, even now, against one of His people. Who dareth to lay anything to their charge? There is neither speck, nor spot, nor wrinkle, nor any such thing remaining upon any one believer in the matter of justification in the sight of the Judge of all the earth.

The heart is the real test of a man’s character. It is not what he says or what he does by which the man may be always known. He may say and do things that are right, from false and unworthy motives, while his heart is altogether wrong. The heart is the man. “As he thinks in his heart, so he is” (Proverbs 23:7).

The heart is the right test of a man’s religion. It is not enough that a man holds to correct doctrine, and maintains a proper outward form of godliness. What is in his heart? That is the great question. That is what God looks at. “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). This is what Paul lays down distinctly as the standard measure of the soul: “A man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart” (Romans 2:28). Who can doubt that this mighty sentence was written for Christians as well as for Jews? He is a Christian, the apostle would have us know, which is one inwardly, and baptism is that of the heart.

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First Things First

The most important fact necessary before reading this website is to examine yourself to see if you are a Christian. If you are not a Christian, much of this would be ‘Foolishness’ to you.
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1 Cor 2:14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
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If you are not a Christian then I recommend reading the following:

What is a Berean?

Acts 17:11
"Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." NIV

My Purpose

Comments

Please feel free to leave comments and you do not have to agree with me. But if you disagree please be kind enough to share the Scriptural reasons.

Great Books

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If I have in any way violated a copyright or not given appropriate credit to an author please forgive me. It was done innocently and in ignorance. Contact me if there is a problem and I will be glad to remove or edit it as desired.